IMHO, this is a slap in the face of the makers of Ubuntu. If such a big vendor decides to fork the entire distribution repository, only to enhance quality, the makers of Ubuntu should really re-think their strategy.

Ubuntu claims to be "open" and what else than quirks in Ubuntu's release/fix/backport policies would stop a contributor to send enhancements and fixes back to the community?

Canonical, are you listening?

WTF you are talking about?

Dell has not forked anything, all they do is to add their own repository for customizations and work directly together with Canonical. Their repository & modifications are available here: http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/